Bearded ‘Douks' dance in nude
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 00:00
December 1, 1921. Three bearded members of the radical Sons of Freedom sect of British Columbia's Doukhobor community gave another nude performance at Vancouver's CPR railway station, the Vancouver Sun reports.
Peaceable except for the small Sons of Freedom sect, the pacifist Doukhobors rejected secular government and established religions. Persecuted in their native Russia, 7,400 Doukhobors settled in what is now Saskatchewan in 1888 and 1889, before 6,000 moved to land purchased and held communally in the Slocan Valley in the interior of British Columbia. While they were a small minority, it was the Sons of Freedom's nude parades and demonstrations and burning buildings that captured the headlines and etched a public image of the peaceable Doukhobor settlers.
The three nude dancers in the railway station were named Sin Bocci, Son of God: Paul Sin Bocci, Martin Sin Bocci and Sema Sin Bocci. They had come from the Slocan Valley to Vancouver to telegraph King George requesting land for 130,000 Doukhobors they expected to bring from Russia.
While waiting for a response from King George, they set off to visit the United States but were denied entry because they were deemed philosophical anarchists who refuse to recognize any government or law when it conflicts with their religion.
After returning to Toronto, they displayed their frustration by disrobing and prancing in the smoking room of the CPR station. They were arrested just before entering the main waiting room.
"Singing at the top of their voices but offering no resistance, the trio was marathoned to the waiting patrol wagon," the Sun reported. "Paul Sin Bocci has issued a threat that his whole tribe will visit its wrath on the City of Vancouver for this arrest and will parade the streets in their nakedness, defying the police of the city, whom they claim know no God but the $5 a day recompense for service."
A week later they were arraigned before magistrate C.J. South, who offered them their liberty if they agreed to return to their homes near Nelson in the Slocan Valley, the Sun reported December 8.
"No," they replied. "This is our home. This is the country of God and we will stay."
They were each sentenced to three months' hard labour.
"Now we are going to heaven," they remarked and proceeded to chant hymns as they started on their journey.